I dunno, I have the same problem with my piece of shit Sony DDU-1621 DVD-ROM. It appears to be stuck in PIO mode, however.

eL - is it the same with/without a media in the DVD-ROM?

It could be a (long) delay while it tries to recognize the disc.

Have you updated the DVD-ROM to the latest firmware? It could help...

Make sure you're using the latest drivers for your motherboard chipset brand (probably VIA, nVidia or maybe SiS). Also make sure that you're using an 80-wire IDE cable instead of a 40- wire one. You can also check for firmware upgrades for the drive maybe.

Might just be a piece of crap like you said...

I fixed my PIO problem. Everything's so smooth now. 😉

Snover, what exactly did you do to fix it (if it's not too embarrassing)?

Edited key in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0002 for the affected chain position [Master/Slave]DeviceTimingMode to be 0xffffffff. Set to PIO only in DevMan and hit OK, then set to DMA if available and hit OK, and was done. Didn't even hafta restart.

Wow that sounds pretty obscure - did you find the info on some tweaking site or something?

I have experienced the behaviour Snover said sometimes under Windows XP. Sometimes IDE devices "lose" their DMA access and return to ancient PIO transfer mode. One easy way to fix it is the manually remove BOTH IDE CHANNELS from hardware manager and reboot. It usually fixes it. Don't know what's producing it though. I've asked that query in several forums and no one has been able to give me an answer.

Well now, regarding my problem:

MiniMax:

* Yes the drive has exactly the same behaviour whether a cd/dvd is inserted or not. So, media types are discarded.

HunterZ:

* My board (ASUS) has a VIA KT333 chipset. I am currently using standard stock Windows XP SP2 IDE/AGP drivers. I will download latest VIA hyperion 4in1 later, and try if they make some difference. I am already using an 80-pin cable. My hard-disk is using UDMA5. Firmware is also updated to latest version. I will also check if UDMA is disabled, but I think it's not.

Well. That's it for now. I am at work now. Will post back later to tell you how it goes. Still, having the feeling that drive is crappy.

eL_PuSHeR wrote:

I have experienced the behaviour Snover said sometimes under Windows XP. Sometimes IDE devices "lose" their DMA access and return to ancient PIO transfer mode. One easy way to fix it is the manually remove BOTH IDE CHANNELS from hardware manager and reboot. It usually fixes it. Don't know what's producing it though. I've asked that query in several forums and no one has been able to give me an answer.

Windows will initially (e.g. when the Device Manager discover the drive) set it to the fastest supported DMA-mode. Then, if the driver detects transmissions errors, retries, etc, it will gradually lower the speed from DMA 5, to 4, 3, 2 .... until it ends up in PIO-mode.

Well, I have tried everything I know of but, to no avail.

To begin with, latest VIA 4in1 Hyperion 4.55vp1 only offered me the choice of installing AGP or INF driver. I wasn't interested in anyone of them so I refused to install anything.

I checked the drive properties and windows hardware manager was reporting drive was using UDMA4.

I went to bios and disabled almost everything: Memory 1T mode, Memory bank interleaving, PCI delayed transaction, enabled/disabled block mode (although I know it's for hard-disks only), lower pci latency timer, disabled ECP printer port to free up an IRQ.

Well, as I have stated. NO CHANGE AT ALL. What a crappy drive. 😠

I have had similar problems against a Yamaha 2100S CD-RW unit. In my case the Event Log contained timeout errors on the SCSI device. I solved my issues my taking the unit apart and cleaning all the crap out of it - and there was a lot in there 😀 No more long delays (causing a pause in Explorer like you've described) when loading CDs.

Thank you very much for the suggestion, but the drive has always been making that, since day 1.

You should follow my instructions 😀

What do you mean? Editting the registry? Drive is already working at full transfer rate (UDMA4). I don't fully understand it.

Oh, my apologies then. I misunderstood your later messages.

None needed, friend. 😎

I'm no expert, but you might be interested in this topic I found on the net:
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-57714.html

I hope it helps!

Thanks for the link. An interesting read. Anyway, I think the drive is behaving exactly the same as day 1. Unless, I got a broken drive, that is. 😐

Remember! Buy Lite-on!

dual layer dvd burner $65, biege version is $60
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp … -106-962&depa=1